Radiation Contamination
"Radiation Contamination" is the 7th episode of "The Hero Generation." Synopsis A high-scale radioactive outbreak in the city's main sewage line alarms the officials. Plot Right, restarting the story before I almost got radiation poisioning. It was a cold winter day. I yawned as I sat up in bed. I listened closely, checking for the sound of snowballs being thrown against my window; all I heard was the silence. Good. No weird snowmen monsters. My house wasn't being destroyed, so there were no Sludge Beasts. Everything seemed so serene and peaceful. Maybe today would be a relaxing day. Walking barefoot to the kitchen, I opened my mom's bedroom door slightly ajar. She wasn't home. My mom usually worked from early in the morning to late at night, giving me optimal time to sit home alone and do completely nothing, except for eat and watch TV. I popped a few bagels into the toaster, then slowly walked into the living room and plopped onto the couch. I flicked on the TV and flipped through the channels with the remote control. When I passed the news channel in a series of lightning-fast channel changes, it looked like red-orange sewage was coming out of the city's main sewage pipe. I flicked back a few channels, and listened to the reporter. "...bright orange gunk has been gushing out of the central sewage line since 10:30 PM last night." A close up showed the miniature pond of human waste and orange goop piling together, like how an artist might mix his paint colors on a palette together with his paint brush. "So what?" I sarcastically asked aloud to myself. "Someone flushed some food coloring as a prank. Big whoop." Right before I changed the channel, the news anchor man squeezed in one other detail that retained my attention. "High-scale radioactivity has been coming from this orange slush, and citizens are advised to keep their distance from it while the city officials remove the waste and stop the source. The city's central water has also been temporarily shut off, in case any of the radioactive waste gets into our drinking water." I sat up. "Keep your distance?' You're standing right there, you dumb news anchor guy." I walked back into the kitchen after hearing the toaster make its usual POP sound when it's done toasting the bagels. I put the bagels on a plate, buttered them well, and sat back on the couch in the living room. After I was done, I sat up and sighed. "I suppose I should probably check out the situation, too," I said to myself. Then again, not everything was alien related. It could just be some sort of mess up with the sewage line. Or maybe someone flushed pure nuclear substances down the toilet, which I doubted. I patted my pajama pants, feeling to make sure the KeyTrix was in my pocket. I pulled it out, and pressed the side buttons in, activating the holographic playlist. As I did, I heard a ring. "That's new," I said, looking at the KeyTrix. But the noise wasn't coming from the KeyTrix. It was my house phone. I ran over to the other side of the living room to retrieve the phone from its charger. "Hello?" I answered. "Joe! What are you doing?" asked a familliar voice. "Nothing, Chris," I answered him. "It's a weekend. I usually don't do anything." Chris was one of my friends from school. We hung out all the time, but now that I got the KeyTrix, we didn't hang out as much anymore. "Can I come over?" Chris asked. I tried to think of a good cover- I really needed to think of an excuse for checking out the- "-radioactive waste," I mistakingly said aloud. "Huh?" Chris asked. I sighed. "Chris, I'm... I'm sort of sneaking over to the sewage lines to take a look at the radioactive waste. Do... do you wanna come?" I asked him. "Isn't that dangerous? Being around radioactive stuff?" he asked. "Not if we keep our distance, and make our visit there extremely brief," I answered him. I heard a bit of silence, as if he was pondering my question. "Yeah, sure. Meet me outside your house," he told me. "All right," I responded. "See you then." I hung up. I can't go alien if Chris comes; it would blow my cover. Eh, I'd find a way somehow. I put on some dark blue jeans and a T-shirt. Then I remembered that it was below freezing outside. It was the moment I'd been waiting for- the first time I'd ever use my leather jacket. I pulled it out of my closet, and put it on over the T-shirt. It felt awesome- and it was warm. There was a sweat jacket inside of it, so that made for some extra warmth. I slipped the KeyTrix into the front breast pocket of my leather jacket and went outside. Of course, Chris was already there, waiting for me. "Hey, Joe," Chris said. He was bundled up in a winter coat, sweat pants, and an ushanka. He sat sideways on his bike, which I thought would fall backwards at any second. "An ushanka?" I asked. "Really? Nobody wears those anymore." "Yeah, they do..." Chris countered. "I'm wearing one, and I count as someone." "Touche," I replied. "So, how are you going to get there? The sewage plant is pretty far from here. I brought my bike. Your bike's broken, isn't it?" Chris asked. Uh oh. I knew I should've gotten that thing fixed. And no way was I going to walk in the cold weather. "Chris, can you keep a secret?" I asked him. He nodded. I pulled the KeyTrix out of my leather jacket pocket. "Are you SURE?" I asked again. He once again nodded. I pressed in the side buttons, activating the holographic playlist. I scrolled through the alien holograms until I reached BioHazard. "Alright," I said, "Get ready!" I pushed down the hourglass symbol. Shiny red armor grew over my skin, and my skull rounded out. My lower jaw stuck out more, stuck permanently in place. Four glistening green wings popped out from my back. It was then that Chris's bike fell backwards- mostly because Chris was so startled, he got knocked off balance. I knew that was going to happen sooner or later. "D-d-d-dude! What are you?" He asked, recovering from his fall. "This thing," I explained, pointing to the hourglass symbol on my chest, "lets me turn into different alien forms. They all have unique powers. This one, for example, can fly!" My wings started buzzing, and I began to float in mid air, proving my point. It took Chris a few seconds for everything to sink in. "Dude... that's awesome! We gotta tell everyone!" "No," I said. "I have to keep a secret identity. I'm, like, a superhero... in a way." "Really?" Chris asked, his eyes widening. "Oh... okay, man. I won't tell anyone." "Now, let's get a move on." I told Chris, starting to fly down the road. It took all of his energy to keep up pace with me. ---- When we arrived at the sewage dump, it smelled- BAD. "Now, Chris," I told him, "I'm safe from the radioactive elements as BioHazard, but you're not safe, since you're human. You have to stay up here." Suddenly, the KeyTrix started timing out. "Nevermind," I said as the KeyTrix reverted me back to human. Talk about bad timing. "So?" Chris asked. "Just turn into BioHaggard and you'll be fine." "The name is BioHAZARD, not BioHaggard. And I can't. I have to let it recharge." The toxic waste was getting worse. It was slowly burning through the ground, creating a pool of orange goop. And, did I mention, it smelled absolutely horrible? "Dude," I said to Chris, "this is like that one word." "What one word?" He asked. "You know, that word. Oderimerius or something." "You mean odiferous?" Chris corrected. "Yeah," I said. "It's really odiferous." Then I realized I just sounded really stupid. But I let it go; not like Chris would care. And I'm pretty sure the radioactive toxic puddle didn't mind as much, either. Not like it was alive or anything. I pulled the KeyTrix out of my pocket again, activating the holographic playlist. I scrolled back to BioHazard again. "Augh," Chris grunted. "Got any other aliens?" "Hmm, Yeah," I responded. "I suppose so." I scrolled a few more over until I reached Igneo. His rock-hard skin should be able to withstand the radioactive elements. I pressed down the hourglass symbol. Rocks protruded painlessly from my skin. The KeyTrix absorbed into the palm of my hand, shooting through my arm and to my chest, where it popped out as the hourglass symbol, with the usual metal dial surrounding it. My shoulders popped out of socket, my skin also disconnecting from my shoulder. Then the rocks took over my entire body. "All right, happy?" I asked Chris. "Whoa, that's cool," Chris said. "What do you call that one?" "I call him Igneo," I said to Chris. "After igneous rocks." I jumped down into the marshy pit of radioactive slop. As I got closer, I could feel the heat coming off of it. I bent down and stuck my index finger into the goop, then pulling it out. It was viscous, that's for sure. It sizzled my fingers, but it did no harm. "What's going on?" Chris yelled down to me. "Nothing much," I yelled back. "I think it's just some regular radioactive slime." And that's when the giant goop hand came out of nowhere. It formed out of the radioactive slime and grabbed me, then pulled me into the puddle. The puddle, however, wasn't as shallow as I thought- it was actually 5 or 6 feet deep in the center. The hand pulled me down, and kept me under. I couldn't see or breathe. I thought about changing into Hydro-Tide, but he wouldn't be immune to radiation. And who knew if he could actually breathe this toxic stuff. As the hand kept me down there longer and longer, I started to panic. I heard Chris's screams from above, trying to call to me, the sound muffled from the goop. Just when I thought I couldn't hold my breath any longer, I got my mind straight and summoned the earth from under me to push me up. The soil errupted in a gross mixture of radioactive slime and soggy dirt. The hand exploded, only to regenerate. As for the rest of the radioactive puddle, deformed hands stretched out, oozing and dripping. "See?" I told Chris, though I was talking more to myself regarding my comment earlier about nothing being normal. "It's either monsters, or aliens, or... I don't know, unidentified creatures of origin. Stuff like that." I barely managed to finish my sentence before the cluster of hands grabbed me and threw me into the ground. "Strike one," I said to the hands, getting up from the ground completely unharmed. I focused my gravity powers on the goop, bending it and stretching it. The goop tried to resist, creating more and more deformed hands. One even managed to shoot forward and hit me right in the forehead. "Strike two, guys," I said. I kept on holding them with my gravity powers. At last, the largest hand shot forward, sweeping me off my feet, momentarily stopping my gravitational pull. "Strike three, you're out," I yelled. "10 points for effort, though. Really good." I continued to use my gravity powers to keep the radioactive slime together, then started to compress the goop together. But when I did, it got harder to compress it. The goop puddle had really thick properties, but I kept trying. Unexpectedly, I compressed it so much that a force blew me backwards, and the radioactive goop took shape- a serpent-like creature with two arms. It grew even more arms from its back, and its head was constantly moving, like a four dimensional shape. It roared horrifically, slithering towards me, burning the soil beneath it with every move forward. Beep beep beep. The KeyTrix started to time out. I need to get away, fast- or that radiation would fry me! I jumped up the side of the pit, and climbed back onto solid ground just as the KeyTrix reverted me to human. Chris was farther back than where he was originally standing, keeping his distance from the monster. I couldn't blame him- the thing was a walking execution machine. I started running away, meeting up with Chris, who was starting to pedal his bike faster and faster. "Dude, what do we do!?" He asked. "Don't worry," I told him. "I've got a plan. But the KeyTrix needs to recharge. We need to hide!" I was starting to run out of breath. "Up that hill over there," Chris said, pointing with a free hand, steering his bike with the other. "We can hide in the forest. It'll give us time. Now get on the pegs!" "The WHAT?" I asked. "The PEGS, on my back tire!" I looked down, seeing two little bars attached to the back tire. I jumped on, grabbing Chris's shoulders for support. He struggled with the sudden weight, but managed to get the bike going at a good speed. The radioactive serpent monster was right on our tail. "What do we name it?" I asked randomly. "Name what!?" Chris asked, his voice shaking. "The radioactive monster guy. He has to have a name," I said. "You can't just have a villain try and kill you without a name." Silence for a few seconds. "Howabout Nuke? Since he's radioactive." Chris explained. "Okay," I agreed. "That works." Chris went as fast as he could on the bike until we reached the hill. It was a steep incline, and there was no way he could make it up, even if I ran along side. I checked the KeyTrix, but its battery was still drained. "Why did you drag me into this!?" Chris yelped hoarsely. "Hey, you're the one who wanted to come over today." I responded. The KeyTrix gave a beep- the signal it was recharged. "Huh, that happened faster than I thought." I remarked, pressing in the side buttons of the KeyTrix and activating the holographic playlist. I wasted no time- I went right to the hologram of the alien I wanted, and pressed the hourglass button down. "Whoa... what are you now?" Chris asked. "A better question- can he save our butts?" "Yeah, Void Matter should handle this pretty well," I responded. "And, well, if not... eh, I'll think of something else." "THAT'S reassuring." Chris said unenthusiastically. I focused my property-changing powers on the radioactive monster, changing its liquid form to a solid one. It took longer than it did for most liquid, but it gradually started to make Nuke into a solid. It tried to shapeshift out of its solidified form, stretching farther and farther away, but its new molecular properties caught up with it. "Chris, back up! This thing is still dangerous to humans, even in its solidifed form." I warned. "Okay, okay..." Chris said, backing away. "Actually, do me a favor. Run to the top of that hill and roll something heavy down here. And do it fast!" Chris nodded, and ran up the hill with as much energy as he could muster from his weakened body. The heat of the radioactive elements almost turned its own properties back into a liquid, but I kept it solid, constantly manipulating Nuke's molecular structure, and atoms, and all that good stuff. I'm not that good at science. "Okay!" Chris screamed from the top of the hill. He pushed down a rock that was about as high as his knees. Good enough. I jumped out of the way, and the rock smashed right into Nuke, shattering him to pieces. All of the chunks of solidified radioactive goop eventually liquified, but they never reformed back into one whole blob. "Now to flush him out." I said, twisting the dial on my chest and pressing in the hourglass symbol. In a flash of light, I was Hydro-Tide. I blasted a jet of water at the small puddles of radioactive goo, seperately washing them all away down the rain gutter in the street. "See? I'm a super hero." I told Chris as he stepped down the hill. "Never... again," Chris managed to say. "Never." "Really? Never?" I asked. "Nah, just kidding. That was GREAT! I helped defeat a radioactive MONSTER!" he exclaimed. My KeyTrix reverted me back to human. "I just wish I knew what that toxic radioactive monster was doing in the city's drainpipes anyway," I said. "Why would it be underground?" "Don't ask me, you've been doing this longer than me." Chris said, laughing a little. "Not TOO long," I said, laughing too. "Come on, let's go back to my house and watch TV or something." And so, I jumped onto the bike pegs and Chris rode us home. But I still felt like something wasn't done right. That I missed something. "Wait," I mentioned, "why didn't I just ride on your pegs to get here? Why'd I have to reveal my secret to you?" "You would've had to transform to fight the monster anyway," Chris told me. "Oh yeah. Good point," I said. "Now let's go!" Chris pedaled away down the barren street. What we didn't see was the orange goop crawl back out of the rain gutter and reform itself. Aliens used *BioHazard *Igneo *Void Matter *Hydro-Tide Trivia *Joe makes a referrence to the snowmen monsters from the episode The Arctic Circle. *Joe's friend, Chris, is added to the continuity of the series. Category:Episodes Category:The Hero Generation